Digital ways to monitor food intake, exercise and stay healthy

Food. Oh yes, my favorite topic. I’m a foodie, which could explain why I’m a few pounds heavier than my ideal weight. I do not monitor food intake. Do you?

I’m not obese yet, thank God, but I’m well aware that I’m heading there like a speed train. That notion that I will soon be a statistics in The World’s Obese population led me to a conquest to start staying healthy. I have tried a bunch of stuff in the past to keep my weight in check but the sneaky bastard always finds a way to outsmart me. My nutritionist told me I have to watch the way I eat.

More precisely, she said I have to monitor food intake and how I exercise, and I might just find myself on a journey back into health and wellness again. Since I love technology, I decided to research on digital ways to monitor food intake so that I can make the process less painful.

The results were exciting. I found a few beautiful ways through which you can digitally monitor your food intake;

Apps that monitor food intake

When you type ‘health and fitness apps’ in the Google search bar, you will be overwhelmed by the number of hits the query has. Clearly, the topic around fitness, food and weight is a sensitive one. Everyone wants to have that perfect body, feel great and still eat as much junk as they possibly could. I know I do.

Since everyone has a smartphone these days, applications have become a great haven for enabling us to monitor food intake on the fly. That said, most of the applications you find on the web promising to direct you towards achieving a great body in like 3 days are full of crap. You can tell them I said that.

But… not all apps are bad. There are some really great apps online which assist you in monitoring your food intake, diet, meal plans, fitness, exercise and a whole lot more. The following 3 apps are some of the best apps I have found online.

21 DAY FIX TRACKER APP

This apps allows you to easily track your WorkOut plan and nutrition. You are able to track how much you eat, the number of portions remaining, the amount of water you drink as well as checking how your body transforms over time. Its color coded, which makes it uniquely appealing as you can check off the foods you eat and see what you need to eat and so on.

The app also contains an easy guide so that you may know what to include in these containers without stress. The 21 day fix has a great work out program as well. Click banner below Whoops! It looks like you forgot to specify your html tag.

KETO DIET MEAL PLAN

Everyone is going crazy about Keto diet. I’m not one to be left behind and so I searched for the best app in this docket. The KETO DIET MEAL PLAN is as amazing as they come.

Their meal plans are easy to use, straightforward and perfect. There is even a community of like-minded fellows who discuss a bunch of stuff around Keto diet. This is a great app to have as it walks you through every aspect of living a great life the Keto way.

No need to think about what to cook or pay for expensive meal plans when you can get this app to design that for you. It will monitor how you lose weight and suggest ways to keep in shape.

RISE UP

Get the free Rise Up application. This application is designed on the basis of cognitive behavioral theory, allowing you to understand multiple dimensions of your life and how they affect your body.

For instance, how do you eat when you are depressed, sad, angry, lonely…?

Through this app, you will be able to notice what you gobble down depending on different moods. It will keep a track of the carbs you eat and offer recommendations on how to counter bad eating behavior.

Smart Scales that monitor food intake

Smart scales have also become very popular in the fitness market. This is probably because they are awesome…and pocket friendly. Scales have greatly evolved from just spitting out your weight when you step on them to giving you a more comprehensive figure of what is happening in your body.

The following 2 scales were some of the best scales available for order online and they come packed with a bunch of features.

BLUETOOTH SMART BODY WEIGHT SCALE BY WEIGHT GURUS

This scale is easy to connect to your favorite fitness app via bluetooth technology. They are able to measure your weight, BMI, body fat, lean mass, water weight and the bone mass.

You do not need a phone every time you use but you will need to sync the device with an application via blue tooth so that you can view your results.

Non-slip, scratch-resistant feet. 4 precise weighing sensors ensure an accuracy of +/- 0.2 lb. It has a large, tempered glass weighing surface which is able to hold up to 400 lbs.

CAUTION: DO NOT use when pregnant or if you have an electronic implant in your body… and oh, if you are less than 10 years old…

THE GOOD: Compatible with Apple Health, Google Fit, and Fitbit. Just go to Integrations in the Weight Gurus app on Itunes or Google Play. Turn on which app you wish to connect to and follow the prompts. This will set up your integration.

THE BAD: Can sync data for a maximum of 8 people only.

RENPHO FDA APPROVED DIGITAL SCALE

This is also a great scale that comes with a user friendly application that has been downloaded more than a million times.

I have not tested the product yet but its FDA approval attests to its quality and applicability. It also uses bluetooth technology to sync with other apps. It shows body weight data including BMI, body fat percentage and bone mass.

You do not need to have a phone around to use the device. It will sync later.

THE GOOD: High quality and comes well recommended. It is also compatible with a bunch of other applications.

THE BAD: Shows only weight on the display. You will have to check on app for other results

Smart utensils that monitor food intake

Its amazing how technology has tried to make all aspects of our lives easier. Imagine cooking your favorite meal outside, with a pot placed between two stones like someone living in the paleolithic period. The great this about this section is that the products featured here have done more than make eating fun. To some people, these products are an absolute necessity and it totally redefined how they enjoy their meals.

Imagine a person with Parkinson’s disease or other people with motion disorders who are not able to enjoy their food because they either spill it on the way to the mouth or are completely not able to keep the food on the spoon without spilling. Smart utensils have become a darling to these people.

Liftware, a company that was purchased by Google Life Sciences pioneered the journey into smart utensils to assist people who had motions problems. Check out the video below to see how it works.

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This kit comes with very clear instructions on how to use, clean, store and charge. It is a long lasting product designed to make eating a great moment for people with motion issues.

Food scanners

Some of the things that we gobble down without thinking may have seriously unquestionable sources and if we take a moment to think about that, we might go crazy.

Who prepares our food? How do they prepare the food? Where did the food come from? How was it grown? GMO or organically? What are the ingredients of our favorite meals? Do they have any kind of nutrients? Is the food hygienic? And a bunch of others…

I’m not trying to make you paranoid so that you start questioning whether every bite you take on your favorite beef burger could kill you, but I want to present the importance of food scanners as a digital way to monitor food intake daily.

Food scanners are not hugely popular, probably because people are ignorant or they just don’t care. I think i belong to the latter category. With time however, with all the global poisoning, GMO food and junk manufactured in some dingy factory somewhere finding its way onto our table, we shall have reason to question what we eat.

Food scanners do just that. They look at the ingredients making your food, nutrients and a bunch of other factors. If you are allergic to some kind of food, you would find food scanners invaluable in monitoring your food intake.

Most of these scanners are in beta testing stage but there is one that is already available for sale on Amazon.

Wearables that monitor your fitness

Most wearables in the market today have been synced with mobile applications to detect a bunch of activities and relay information to these applications. For instance, these apps are able to detect your cardiovascular (heart) activity, beats and such versus the level of exercise you put in and relay this information to your app. There are millions of these wearables being sold on Amazon. I will just drop a link to my favorite one.

THE GOOD: Works like a charm and accurate to the hilt! Compatible with many devices and applications

THE BAD: Still looking for that, will let you know when that pops up.

Final Thought

Whether you monitor your food intake digitally or not, the buck stops with you. You are the only one who has the capacity to decide which food to eat, how to eat these foods and so forth. The digital products noted in this post are just a way to keep yourself motivated. Personally, I plan to use these products well so that I can achieve the goal of heading back to my ideal weight and fitness.

I would love to hear your views on these products and probably what you have tried in the past. Since technology keeps on shifting its base, we shall be updating this article as time goes by, so stay tuned for that.

As usual, I gotta say that the ball is now in your court. Will you play?